Library Book Called 'Forty Minutes Late' Returned 100 Years Late

In 1917, a woman named Phoebe Webb checked out a book from the San Francisco Public Library, a collection of short stories called Forty Minutes Late. On Friday, that volume returned to the library—100 years overdue.

According to her great-grandson Webb Johnson, who brought the old book back, Phoebe Webb died shortly after checking out the collection. Forty Minutes Late got lost among the family possessions until Johnson unearthed it in 1996. At that point, he told theSan Francisco Chronicle, it felt like the statue of limitations had passed. "We figured it was ours now."

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And so it went, until a fateful day when Johnson heard about the San Francisco library's amnesty program. Like other libraries around the world, SF's began to forgive late fees on exceedingly overdue books in an attempt to get them back into the library. Had they accumulated at the modern rate, the fees on Forty Minutes Late could have amounted to more than $3,000 (though the SF library now caps late fees at $5.) Thanks to a good conscience and a little forgiveness, Johnson brought the book back.

The book is by F. Hopkinson Smith, an author, artist and engineer who designed the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The first story in Smith's collection is about a cranky man who nearly misses a speaking engagement because of a late train. The author, in the story, suggests there are worst sins than being late, such as being cranky — a notion that Johnson says he fully endorses.

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